By J.T. Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com

When Artesia High School’s swim team of seven girls and eight boys walks into the Albuquerque Academy Natatorium to compete in the state swimming championships on Friday and Saturday, Feb.21-22, they’ll be representing some Artesia swimming history that’s worth remembering.

The history – and the story of the Artesia High School swimming program – begins with Jerry Kull and the “Water Dogs.”

Water Dogs was the name of an AAU age-group swimming team started by Kull in 1961. James Herbert took over the program after Kull’s death.

Herbert then coached Shelley Ebarb, who would take over in 1982. Ebarb coached and volunteered until she went to the school board in 1994 and asked to start a swim team at Artesia High School.

Ebarb coached the Bulldogs until 2002, then took a break and coached again from 2012-2017. Her eventual successor, Andrea Ciro, volunteered as an assistant coach while earning her master’s degree in speech therapy from Eastern New Mexico.

“I kept the “Water Dogs” and swim team alive until I could find the right person,” Ebarb said. “Andrea was the right person. She had the experience and expertise I did not have in swimming.”

“She was more qualified than I was,” Ebarb said. “She was a swimmer’s swimmer. I was just a fun swimmer. Ciro has done a phenomenal job. I would get the same kind of kids, but I could not make them the swimmers she has.”

Ciro graduated from Cypress Creek High School in Houston, Texas, where she was a member of the girls swimming and diving team. She was an NCAA champion swimmer for the University of Texas Longhorns and a finalist at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials. She set numerous Texas age group records and Gulf swimming records.

A mother of twin boys, Alec and Aidan, Ciro took the reins of the Artesia swim team from Ebarb in 2018 and it was a team without a swimming pool. Artesia’s pool was closed in 2013 due to water leaks.

The team was allowed to use the pool at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) on Richey Avenue to practice for an hour and a half each day but before they could enter the facility, coaches and swimmers to undergo background checks.

“It was a hard road for many years without a pool in Artesia,” Ciro said. “But we are grateful to FLETC and Artesia Public Schools for keeping our swimming dreams alive. We have come from nothing to where people know we have a swim team.”

Hard work produces titles.

A major change came in 2019 with the opening of the Artesia Aquatic Center at 711 Bowman Drive. Since then, the Lady Bulldogs have won three district championships and finished as runner-up in 2024.

The boys also broke through last year and won their first District 4-4A championship.

“It is fun to coach kids with a good work ethic and who pull for one another,” Ciro said.

Artesia’s swimmers are hoping to make a big splash in Albuquerque but no matter how good the team is, Ciro said, winning a state championship is a goal that’s all but out of reach because the Bulldogs don’t have a diving team (their pool, in fact, doesn’t have a diving board). Without divers, Artesia is behind the curve in accumulating points toward the team title.

But that disadvantage hasn’t stopped the Bulldogs from competing and improving on their first state appearance, when they finished 32nd. The girls team has finished as high as fifth place at the state meet.

This year’s girls team includes eighth-grader London Acosta; ninth-grader Morgan Fisher; sophomores Johanna Padilla and Anikah Wisen; junior Sarah Plotner; and seniors Addisyn Hartman and Ann Greenwood.

The boys competing this weekend are: senior Andree Bautista; juniors Alec Ciro, Aidan Ciro, Eli DeHoyos, Dylan Florez, Chaz Rogers and Javier Rodriguez; and sophomore Layton Whitmire.

J.T. Keith can be reached at jtkeith@elritomedia.com